BRYANS ANGLE

On saturday whilst sitting in  t he office working on my website i got the urge to have a go with some soft lures on a local river and try and catch a perch or two. I dug out my lightweight kit, picked some soft shads and set off to fish the River Chelmer for an hour or so before going home for some scran. When i got there the river was as expected, a milky tea colour and pushing through a bit. I walked for a mile or so tossing 3 inch kopyto,s into every likely looking spot but not even a nibble. I kind of expected this as the sun was high and strong and there was a stiff breeze blowing. After about an hour i admitted defeat and trudged back to the van, but before setting off for home i crossed the bridge and spoke to a guy fishing for chub on the opposite side of the lock to where i had been fishing. While i was chatting with him i noticed a lot of dace topping in the slower water so decided on 5 mins fishing there before going. Because of the water colour i decided to try a brigh...

A couple of weekends ago i had the urge to have a bash for the flounder that supposedly run up Benfleet Creek at this time of year. Parking up by the boat club creek on Two Tree Island i loaded myself up with all the necessaries and grabbed Oscars lead and off we set for the long walk to the spot that i wanted to try. Now when i,ve walked to this spot with just the dogs it doesn,t seem that far, but now that i had all my fishing gear, bait, food, water for me and also for Oscar it seemed that the spot was in fact the other end of Essex. I was bloody knackered by the time i got there a good 2.5 hours before high water and it took me a good 5 minutes recuperation before i could even think of setting up my stall. Boy do i need to loose some more weight and get fitter, especially as during the spring i want to take a walk from South Fambridge along the river to Creeksea. I don,t know how far this is but its got to be at least 5 miles along the top of the wall, not that far i know but bear ...

At the beginning of the year I dug deep in my pockets and treated myself to a nice secondhand aluminium dinghy so that I could use it on my own for some pike fishing on The Broads and The Fens. After collecting the dinghy from Norwich I towed back to the workshop where I gave it a clean and checked the trailer for fit for towing, as well as fixed a light board I had lying around. More importantly I fit a towbar to my van so I could actually tow the thing. After a coupe of weeks fiddling around and waiting for my river license to come through I was all set to go on her maiden voyage. Destination was the River Thurne in Norfolk at a location I had found when we holidayed near Cromer last year. Everything loaded I set off to Norfolk at 5am on a horrible wet and windy Friday morning. Weather forecast was for heavy rain all weekend in Essex but windy and clear in Norfolk so I was hopeful of not getting a soaking. At first light I pulled upto my chosen slipway and proceeded to set up the b...